COMS102-14S2 (C) Semester Two 2014

The News Machine

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2014
End Date: Sunday, 16 November 2014
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 25 July 2014
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 10 October 2014

Description

This course provides students with an understanding of the forces that shape the selection and presentation of news. It introduces significant theoretical approaches that seek to explain what is news and the criteria by which it is selected; it explores key aspects of the production of news and analyses specific areas of news (foreign, political, sport and crime) in more depth.

PLEASE NOTE: There are two occurrences of this course -- an on-campus (C) occurrence and a distance (D) occurrence. This occurrence of the course is the on-campus one.

This course introduces students to the study of journalism. You will learn about: how the news works; issues and constraints that journalists face; and how the news is changing. Among the major ideas threaded through the course are the independence of journalists, the way technology shapes what journalism can do, the position of the news within society and politics and the double orientation of news producers towards public service and selling a product. Learning will take place largely through active engagement with the news, including brief tasters of doing journalism.

Learning Outcomes

  • On completion of the course you should be able to:
  •    understand how news is produced and the major forces shaping its production
  •    identify ideas of quality journalism
  •    construct arguments about the power of journalism within society
  •    discuss how news is changing
  •    reflect on the role of technology in journalism
  •    interpret media content in terms of production dynamics
  •    critically analyse media content
  •    work individually and in small groups on information-gathering and analysis
  •    develop basic news skills

Course Coordinator

Donald Matheson

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Tutorial participation 10% A roll will be taken each week. You get 1% for attending and participating each week, up to a maximum of 10% (i.e. you can miss one of the 11 tutorials and get full marks still)
Learn exercises 20% 6 exercises, including quizzes, posting information on a group wiki and posting analyses.
Test 20% Test of understanding of the course’s academic readings. Open Mon 13 to Sunday 19 October.
News analysis 15 Aug 2014 25% Analysis how a news story was reported differently in print and television.
Essay 10 Oct 2014 25% Essay on constraints on journalism

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Harcup, Tony; Journalism: Principles and Practice ; 2nd; London: Sage, 2009.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $670.00

International fee $2,850.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All COMS102 Occurrences

  • COMS102-14S2 (C) Semester Two 2014
  • COMS102-14S2 (D) Semester Two 2014 (Distance)
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